Winter gritting

Any day now I expect some commentators will be telling us that 2015 is, so far, ‘the warmest year on record’.  Indeed, on the whole, this winter has not been too bad so far, so it would be better to get this message of doom out quickly before temperatures fall.

It may surprise readers to learn that so far this winter Suffolk County Council’s fleet of road-gritters have been out and about some 26 times on the 1225 miles of road in Suffolk that are ‘priority 1 treatment routes’, and 12 times on the 845 miles of ‘priority 2 treatment routes’ (additional roads which are treated when it is forecast to freeze after 9 a.m.).  The 34 Priority 1 routes take some two and a half hours to complete.

This year, thanks to the contract with Keir MG, nine new Econ gritters have been purchased to replace ageing ones in the fleet, and a further 29 have been upgraded.  This capital expenditure would not have been possible without the financial advantages brought by the new contract.

It is fair to say that some aspects of the contract have not proved too successful so far, and  urgent action is being taken to put this right.  It does seem however that Suffolk Highways’s preparedness for winter, warmer than average or not, is better than it has been for some years.